How to Deal with a Competitive Market

Don't take it personally if your competition starts selling their gold at a lower price, or offers a questing service at half the cost of your quote. In a market, cutting prices can make the difference between sealing a deal or not, but it has negative consequences in the long run, for all parties involved. Compounding price cuts can unnecessarily drop the value of your product passively, and sometimes sharply.

I am not fully involved in the virtual goods industry, but I'd like to just list a few pointers on dealing with a competitive market, and I'll try to be specific to the virtual good industry as I go over them.

• Stand by your Value- Employees, site upkeep, stock, and other expenses add up quickly. Resorting to matching your competition or beating them by a couple bucks can turn your profits upside down. Network with other merchants and set a standard for your prices. Keeping the prices steady means more money for everyone. The market giants don't become highly profitable by being the cheapest, they branch out and build their brand through advertising and consistent satisfaction. This is what the separates small-timers from lasting income.

• Offer Incentives that Will Make you Stand Out- Expanding your payment options or finding the right agents to represent your brand can be great for you. You can offer first-time customer rates, and show appreciation to recurring customers by sending them coupon deals. When advertising across platforms, list offers that may seem specific to those potential buyers.

• Perfect your Delivery Standards- Follow up on your promises to have a skilling order completed within ten hours, and chances are you'll have a customer for life. Your reputation will precede your price by leaving your customers consistently satisfied. If a situation arises where a customer has to wait longer than discussed, consider gifting them with 10-20% of your profit, completing an extra quest, or offering a coupon for their next order.

• Master Customer Service- Have you ever been to a gold site where it seems that they could care less if they make the sale or not? Maybe a livechat agent responded to your question with "one sec" and ten minutes later hasn't followed up? Every time a business fails to offer quality customer care, they pass up on a sale or future business. Don't be frustrated if your customer explains that they would rather go elsewhere for a cheaper price. Instead, explain what you have to offer and that if they change their mind you will be happy to assist them in the future. Next time, when the cheaper merchant is offline, they will know that you will be there to make the sale.

If anyone has anything to add, let me know and I'll add it to the main post. I enjoy helping people out and would like to contribute some quality content to this site.

 

Good post buddy.

 

Damn man Im loving this post aswell as your merching post! Quality!!!

 

Great read as always, keep posting man I enjoy them.

 

In my opinion, you should only be offering services like cut prices and whatnot compared to competitors to get into the market in the first place. Most people aren't going to go to a service that was just created a week ago for the same price as one that was made years ago with hundreds or thousands of vouches. If you provide a service at a lower cost than competitors you're either trying to break into the market or trying to scam. Period.

 

Im looking to start a training business soon as I see thats common amongst the trusted people. Any tips? Do I have to donate to get trust?

 

When I came back a few months ago since registering I had no vouches/trust but I started browsing and looking for people needing training/quests that didn't give any risk to them. I ended up doing an NMZ ready account for someone and the MM of the trade saw I did a good job and wanted one made himself so I made one for him also. Nmz ready accounts always seem in demand so people saw that I had made them before and more people started messaging me about them.

Just got to build yourself up

 

Whats the price you charge and how long does each account take to make @sj709

 

Absolutely, people will only choose to transact with newfags if they offer better prices than established sellers. Even then, many people will choose to buy from the established seller rather than risk being scammed or have to use a MM.

Proof of merit, as demonstrated in your post, is also a good way to get more business and further connections. Similarly, making a QBD bot back in 2015 led to many people wanting to purchase private bots from me even though I had never advertised such a service, leading to me making a fair sum of money.

 

looking to expand into RSPS markets, and this helped wonderfully. +1 mate.

 

Your first point is idealistic, not practical. Building a trust in this market simply is unable to happen in its current state, so by not undercutting prices you're losing both profits and market share over the long run, as opposed to gaining by sticking to your prices

 

I agree, most of this applies to established merchants.

 

The points named in the op are basically from Treacy & Wiersema / Porter lol. Vouch

 

This is the second guide i've read of yours, thank you for taking the time out to do this kind of stuff man! Means a lot! (to me at least haha)

 

Parasite marketers rely on other people's customers to reach their next revenue goal, Just as parasite SEO 'experts' use high authority sites they do not own to exploit search engine rankings

If you need to make a point of undercutting you're not building a long term customer base, as when you stop, no matter how good at branding you are, the majority's will move on to the next undercutter

Think long term game and not short term

 

ty for this

 

Good read but yea people who usually undercut are scammers or new

 

I undercut at an acceptable profit margin - there is no reason for someone to purchase my gold over bogla unless I'm 10 cents cheaper a M. I am satisfied with the 20% markup I have though, I guess it's all perspective -

 

You said it well man. I always believe its important to build a brand rather than just a meaningless trade. Because if all fails you still have your Brand which is your reputation basically. Just by having the reputation you make insane margins to eat little and live long the wong ching says.

 

I believe someone already said this, but your 4 steps apply pretty much to big/trusted service providers. The little guys building their way up have no chance but to undercut in order to get a job. They don't have the credibility to back up a firm price for services.

Liked the read though, well thought out and informative.